Failure on domestic violence

The shocking murder of Garda Tony Golden and the attempted murder of Siobhan Phillips - who is still fighting for her life after being shot - was a "complete failure" of the criminal justice system, according to the head of Safe Ireland, the umbrella organisation for Women's Shelters.

The shocking murder of Garda Tony Golden and the attempted murder of Siobhan Phillips - who is still fighting for her life after being shot - was a "complete failure" of the criminal justice system, according to the head of Safe Ireland, the umbrella organisation for Women's Shelters.

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Failure on domestic violence

Independent.ie

The shocking murder of Garda Tony Golden and the attempted murder of Siobhan Phillips - who is still fighting for her life after being shot - was a "complete failure" of the criminal justice system, according to the head of Safe Ireland, the umbrella organisation for Women's Shelters.

Just months after she published a damning report on the failure of the Irish legal system to address domestic violence, Safe Ireland CEO Sharon O'Halloran said the events leading up to last weekend's murder of Garda Golden by dissident thug Adrian Crevan Mackin underscored how Ireland is still not taking domestic violence seriously and putting the lives of victims and those around them at risk.

"We have a culture of minimising and denial and in many cases, the gardai don't even go out" (to intervene), she told the Sunday Independent.

"This wasn't about dissident republicans. This woman was the target and the system didn't recognise the very real danger she was in," she said.

Both Safe Ireland and Women's Aid have repeatedly called for multi-agency risk assessments and domestic homicide reviews used by police in the UK for the past decade to reduce the risk of violence against abused women there.